At Last

September 12, 2025 
By John Knox

For decades, women with heart disease have encountered gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and research — leading to care that has not always addressed their unique needs. During her cardiology training, Cathevine Yang, MD, saw an opportunity to change this. She is now working to advance a future where women receive the personalized, equitable heart care they deserve.

Yang applied for Stanford’s newly created Women's Heart Health Postdoctoral Fellowship and, in July 2025, became the program’s inaugural fellow. As part of this unique program, Yang and the fellows who follow will gain hands-on experience evaluating and treating women across the full spectrum of cardiovascular conditions, always with a focus on improving outcomes through tailored care.

“The fellowship is a powerful opportunity to train the next generation of physicians to recognize and address sex-based differences in cardiovascular care,” says program director Jennifer Tremmel, MD, the Susan P. and Riley P. Bechtel Medical Director of the Women’s Heart Health Program and Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine.

“Too often, medical education promotes a uniform approach to treatment, which leads to persistent disparities because it overlooks how differently cardiovascular disease can present and progress in women. Our program challenges that model by emphasizing personalized, sex-specific care,” Tremmel says.

“Our sustained waitlist shows that what we offer is not only unique but also urgently needed. It’s a clear sign that we’re doing something right, offering care that patients simply can’t find elsewhere,” Tremmel says. “This is confirmed in clinic over and over when patients tell us that they finally feel listened to and understood.”

She adds that “the clinical postdoctoral fellowship program is intended to train experts who will be equipped to establish their own women’s heart health program, improve the care and outcomes for women cardiovascular patients, and train future providers who will care for these women.”

Filling in the teaching gaps

Yang, the inaugural fellow, completed an internal medicine residency, an adult cardiology fellowship, and an interventional cardiology fellowship. Yet, throughout her rigorous training, she noticed that sex-based differences in cardiovascular medicine were not sufficiently emphasized. This gap affirmed her desire to improve care for female patients and led her to seek a fellowship program specifically focused on women's cardiovascular care.

What makes the Stanford program particularly special for Yang is its collaboration with specialists in cardiovascular rheumatology, vascular medicine, endocrinology, gynecology, and other disciplines.

“There’s much to be learned about some of the hormone changes as a woman progresses throughout her life, for example,” Yang noted. “In cardiology training, there are gaps where we don't quite understand how sex- and gender- based differences affect the broader cardiovascular system. I’m referring to physiological conditions that a female patient might go through during her lifetime, such as pregnancy and menopause. Other diseases, like osteoporosis, are more prone to affect women, and women tend to have more vascular conditions as well.”

Mentored research in women’s heart health is also an integral part of the program. Yang brings a background in SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection) and will conduct further research in this area. She will also continue her study on ANOCA (angina with non-obstructive coronary arteries), which explores how therapies can be tailored to the root causes of a patient’s angina. This work complements related clinical research she will be doing in the cardiac catheterization lab.

While a couple of other women’s heart health fellowships exist nationwide, Stanford’s stands apart: it is the only program led by a female interventional cardiologist who is also a specialist in women's cardiovascular care. It also requires applicants to have completed both an internal medicine residency and a cardiology fellowship, ensuring fellows arrive with advanced training and experience.

By the end of the Women’s Heart Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yang will be well-equipped to launch a clinical program of her own. Her training will span advanced clinical care and research, along with essential skills for building a program, including leadership, management, financial strategy, marketing, negotiation, and fundraising.

Downstream benefits

An added benefit of the fellowship is its ripple effect. Each fellow engages with other cardiology trainees and faculty, helping to raise awareness and deepen understanding of women’s heart health across the entire Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

“Having fellows trained in this work, and going on to lead or influence programs elsewhere, creates a pathway to spread these insights far beyond our own walls,” Tremmel says.

When her fellowship concludes in June 2026, Yang plans to establish a comprehensive women’s heart health program that serves patients with MINOCA (myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries), ANOCA, SCAD, and other overlapping conditions.

“Five to 10 years down the road, I would like to establish my own training program as well, so I can educate the next generation of cardiologists,” she says.

A continuing challenge

As progress accelerates in women’s heart health, sustaining that momentum remains a challenge.

“Programs focused on women’s health are particularly vulnerable in the current climate, and many are facing real threats. That’s why donor support is critical now more than ever,” Tremmel says.

She has experienced this challenge firsthand, especially when it came to launching the fellowship.

“For years, I felt we had the infrastructure to train future leaders in women’s heart health, but we didn’t have the resources to support a fellow. It was frustrating to know that we had so much knowledge and expertise to share, yet no formal mechanism to pass it on. That changed entirely with a chance meeting with Connie Lurie,” Tremmel says.

Lurie, a passionate advocate for women in medicine, first heard Tremmel speak in 2013 during a meeting of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS). Both recognized that the conventional one-size-fits-all approach to cardiovascular care — treating women and men the same despite the evidence clearly showing they are not affected the same way — was not improving outcomes for women.

What Tremmel said that day resonated with Lurie, and it led her with her husband Bob to make several generous philanthropic contributions to advance Tremmel’s program.

“Connie and Bob’s support made the fellowship possible — and without it, it wouldn’t exist. To me, this experience is a powerful example of what can happen when a physician’s vision to improve medicine is matched with people who believe in that vision and are willing to support it. That’s where transformative change really begins,” Tremmel says.

While the Luries’ generosity was catalytic, they are not alone. Other donors who share their belief in personalized, equitable care have also stepped forward to support the Women’s Heart Health Program — ensuring it continues to grow, evolve, and inspire a new generation of leaders in the field.

Together, their investment is helping to redefine what’s possible in cardiovascular care for women, at Stanford and beyond.